# HTML: The Markup Language Reference

## W3C Working Draft 19 October 2010

This Version:
  http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-html-markup-20101019/
Latest Version:
  http://www.w3.org/TR/html-markup/
Previous Versions:
  http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-html-markup-20100624/
  http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-html-markup-20100304/

Editors:
  Michael(tm) Smith <sideshowbarker@gmail.com>

The content of this document is also available as a single HTML file.

Copyright © 2010 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark and document use rules apply.

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## Abstract

This non-normative reference describes the HTML markup language and provides details to help producers of HTML content create documents that conform to the language. It is intended to complement the normative conformance criteria defined in the HTML5: A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML specification, as well as information in related deliverables published by the HTML Working Group and from other sources. By design, this reference does not describe related APIs in detail, nor attempt to explain how implementations that are consumers of HTML content are meant to process documents (those areas are covered by the HTML5 specification itself), nor attempt to also be a tutorial or “how to” authoring guide.

## Status of this Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

This document is the 19 October 2010 Working Draft of HTML: The Markup Language Reference. If you’d like to comment on this document, the preferred means for commenting is to submit your comments through the HTML Working Group bugzilla database, with the Component field set to `HTML5: The Markup Language`. Alternatively, you can send comments by e-mail to public-html-comments@w3.org (archived).

This document was published by the W3C HTML Working Group, part of the HTML Activity in the W3C Interaction Domain.

## Instability and incompleteness of this document

This document is a working draft — all parts of it remain subject to significant change or removal, and some parts are currently incomplete; in particular, many elements currently lack complete documentation in the following subsections:

Examples
  The documentation for each element ideally have at least one conformant example and at least one non-conformant example.
Details
  The purpose of this subsection is to provide, where needed, additional details about the semantics of the element and its attributes.
Additional constraints and admonitions
  This purpose of this subsection is to provide, where needed, additional document-conformance constraints and usage admonitions for the element and its attributes (in addition to those already documented in the Permitted content, Permitted attributes, Permitted parent elements, and Tag omission subsections).

Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. This document is informative only. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.